


The Night Is Behind Us

by Crystalshard



Category: The Mandalorian (TV)
Genre: M/M, Mandorin MerMay Contest, Mer-creature Corin, MerMay
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-31
Updated: 2020-05-31
Packaged: 2021-03-03 05:02:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,727
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24479164
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Crystalshard/pseuds/Crystalshard
Summary: Corin has a secret.Unfortunately, his body isn't going to let him keep it much longer.(Submission for the Mandorin MerMay challenge.)
Relationships: Corin the Stormtrooper (Rescue and Regret)/The Mandalorian (The Mandalorian TV)
Comments: 25
Kudos: 137





	The Night Is Behind Us

**Author's Note:**

  * For [LadyIrina](https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyIrina/gifts).



> Inspired by [The Mandalorian, his Son and the Storm Trooper](https://archiveofourown.org/series/1560925) by LadyIrina.

"Four credits. No more," Din said tersely. 

The child burbled in Corin's arms as they watched the stall-holder fling dramatic hands into the air, Corin biting his lip on laughter as he watched his beloved negotiate. 

"Four?" the Togruta cried. "It's worth at least ten!" 

Din turned the power cell over in his hand, his helmet tilted at an angle that Corin recognized as disbelieving. "Ten? It's worth eight new, and they're still making these." 

The Togruta huffed, his yellow and white montrals catching the child's eyes as he shook his head. "Nearer to the Core, perhaps. I wish you good luck finding a new one on this planet for that price, with the transport costs." 

On cue, Corin shuffled closer, apparently more interested in wiping sticky fruit juice from the child's face than in the bargaining session. "Any luck?" he asked Din, the angle of his shoulders ostensibly excluding the seller from the conversation. 

"Not really," Din said. "Looks like we'll have to go elsewhere." 

"Now, wait . . ." the Togruta began hastily. 

Corin held out a hand. "Show me the part?" 

Din passed it to Corin without hesitation, and Corin brought it up to eye level. "At least two years old, the charge won't hold as long as it should," Corin said, his tone dismissive. "Buy it or leave it, but we need to go." Handing the power cell back to Din, Corin returned his attention to the cheerfully pulp-stained child in his arms. 

"Six credits?" Din suggested to the Togruta. 

The stall holder gave in grudgingly. "Six credits." 

Din paid the man, and they strolled away towards the rest of the market. "What else is on the list?" Corin asked, letting the corners of his mouth turn up at the success of their haggling tactics. 

"Laundry soap and canned meat," Din said, his voice suggesting that he was smiling as much as Corin was. "Ration packs if they have them at a decent price." 

Corin made a face, but shrugged acceptance. Former Imperial travel rations were still the cheapest thing on the market, even if eating the brick-like bars could be hazardous to one's teeth. Barracks rumor suggested that some of the bars had been wrapped before the birth of the Empire. 

"Okay, it looks like . . ." 

The rest of Din's sentence went unheard as lightning pain lanced down Corin's legs. He stumbled, nearly falling to his knees before instinct and training kicked in and let him straighten. Beskar-clad arms wrapped around him, supporting him, and the child let out a worried chirp as it patted his cheek with one tiny hand. 

"I'm fine," Corin said, dredging up a smile. The pain had gone, and he absolutely was fine. For now, anyway. "I tripped, that's all." 

Corin didn't need to see through Din's helmet to know the skeptical look on his partner's face. "Sure?" Din asked. 

"Sure," Corin promised. And he was. He would be. 

* * *

Half-asleep, Corin flopped an arm onto Din's side of the bed. Nothing but cooling fabric met his touch, and a couple of hopeful pats failed to miraculously materialize his Mandalorian. 

Huffing a noise of complaint, Corin debated staying in bed anyway. It wasn't much, a simple box with a mattress inside that they'd stuffed into the upper deck storage area, but it was a significant improvement on the one-man stretcher that had formerly served as Din's sleep rack and the child's cabin. For starters, it held both of them. 

At least, it did when Din was here. Weighing his options, Corin reluctantly gave in to the fact that he had to get up. The hatch to the child's bunk - a former storage space that they'd fitted out with a tiny mattress - was open, showing an untidy pile of blankets but no small green baby. It seemed that he was the last one up this morning. 

Swinging his legs out of bed, Corin smoothly rose to his feet, reached for a clean pair of pants . . . 

. . . and collapsed to the floor with a thud. 

This was no warning strike - this was constant, this was agony, this was flesh and bone twisting against nerve. Corin gritted his teeth against the pain and panted shallowly. Standing on legs that no longer wanted to walk would cost him dearly, but he had to do something. He had to - 

"Corin!" Din must have practically teleported up the ladder, to be here so quickly. "What's going on?" 

Habit stilled the words in his throat, his memory of his father's vicious disapproval at his weakness making Corin close his eyes against the secret he'd kept since childhood. 

"Please, Corin." The waver in Din's voice had Corin looking up again, his reflection blurring in the reflection of Din's breastplate. "Let me help. You've been stumbling ever since the market on Lagonna, and you keep telling me you're fine. We can find you a doctor, some sort of medical -"

"No," Corin gritted out. "Doctors - can't help. I - need - salt water. Ocean. Please." 

Din nodded quickly. "Okay. Okay, salt water, I can find that. Nearest planet with an ocean." Kneeling, Din gathered Corin into his arms, transferring him the short distance back to the bed. "I have painkillers." 

Corin swallowed a scream at the movement, breath hissing between his teeth. "Won't - help. But. Thanks." 

Din pressed a gentle kov'nyn to Corin's forehead, then pulled back. Corin barely heard the door to the cockpit hiss aside. 

* * *

Time passes oddly when you're in pain. For Corin, it seemed like days before Din returned, the child tucked into one strong arm. "Corin? We'll be there in half an hour. Do you want me to leave the kid with you?" 

Even with the distraction of the shooting ache up and down both legs, Corin knew what Din had left unsaid. The child might be able to heal him under other circumstances, yes - but there was, technically, nothing wrong with him that could be healed. Not until he got to salt water, the colder the better. "No," Corin managed. "Don't want to - worry the - kid. Just - help me - down the - nnn - ladder. Faster I'm - in water - the better." 

The child chirped mournfully, leaning over to press its little forehead to Corin's and nearly overbalancing out of Din's arms in the process. 

* * *

Wind buffeted the _Razor Crest_ as it descended through the planet's atmosphere, the engines humming as Din fought to bring the ship down as smoothly as he could. Corin gritted his teeth as he held onto the ridges of one of the side ramps, bare skin chilled and scraped by unforgiving metal. 

It wouldn't matter soon. 

The ship slowed, hovered, and the ramp's hydraulics hissed as Din opened it from the pilot's seat. Walking was beyond Corin's abilities, but he could still roll. Roll down the ramp and flop off the end, his naked body hitting the waves less than six feet down with an ungraceful splash. The chill was shocking to his unprotected skin, only sheer beskar-forged will preventing Corin from gasping as he sank without swimming. 

Enclosed by deep green water, Corin let go. 

* * *

Din watched from the cockpit as Corin hit the water, the spray and the waves consuming him whole. It seemed almost too easy for the sea to erase any trace of him. 

He wasn't coming back up. 

Not for the first time, Din wished that his lover felt safe being more open. He didn't doubt that if _whatever_ it was hadn't happened, then Corin would have continued to conceal the leg injury he'd taken somewhere. Would have held to an idea of strength that was brittle instead of flexible, alone instead of woven in with others to become stronger than its parts added together. Just like Din himself had, before a small green child had reached up a tentative paw to touch his outstretched hand and before a Stormtrooper had looked up at him with eyes bluer than gunmetal. 

Corin wasn't coming back up. 

Din moved, cursing his hesitation. He didn't know enough about Corin's injury, or why Corin had insisted that salt water would cure it. He should have asked more questions, should have prepared a way to get Corin back on board. 

He found himself standing on the _Crest's_ lower deck before he knew it, a rope tied to the opposite hatch and the loose end in his hand. The autopilot would keep the ship hovering until it ran out of fuel, and Din intended to spend every one of those seconds searching for the man the sea had swallowed. His feet at the edge of the extended ramp, Din prepared to jump. 

And then, as if the universe had heard a prayer Din had never spoken aloud, the sea spat Corin back out. 

Dark hair and pale shoulders breached the waves, Corin's face bearing a look of ecstasy that Din had never seen him wear outside their most intimate moments. Something dark moved under the waves where Din expected to see equally light legs, but that was negligible next to the fact that Corin was alive. 

Corin inhaled, and Din could do nothing but watch as those blue eyes opened to fix on him. "I'm okay!" Corin called, the relieved smile on his face more convincing than his words. "Listen, there's some things I need to explain. Can you meet me at that island over there?" Lifting one strong arm, Corin pointed to a smudge on the horizon. "I, uh, need a good swim." 

Din was utterly lost in both thought and geography, so he simply nodded. "Okay. I can do that." 

"I'll see you there," Corin said quickly. His body twisted, more liquid than a human spine should allow, and Din caught a glimpse of something dark wrapped around Corin's lower half as his heart dove back into the churning ocean. 

* * *

A bobbing, rippling shape approached the beach in the fading rays of the planet's sunset. Din didn't need the demanding smack of the child's hand on his arm to stand up, his feet taking him from boarding ramp to water's edge, child cuddled his left arm. 

"Corin?" Din called, and the splashing stilled. For a moment, there was nothing but the soft break of the waves and the creeping uncertainty that Din had been feeling since Corin's collapse. 

Then Corin emerged from the waves, heading straight for the beach. Oddly, he kept swimming past the point when he could have reached the bottom with his feet. Kept swimming until he had to pull himself out onto the hard-packed sand on his forearms and elbows. 

And tail. 

It took Din several seconds and an infra-red scan before he understood what he was seeing. There wasn't a blanket wrapped around Corin's legs - no, that powerful torso melded seamlessly into a slick tail the same color as the hair on Corin's head. Din fell to his knees next to Corin, staring. 

Corin shuffled around into a seated position, tail stretched out to touch the ocean that rolled ceaselessly along the shore. "I'm sorry," he said, quietly, looking down at his tail. "I don't - I know that this isn't what you signed up for." 

The child reached for Corin, and Din automatically set their little one down. It only took a few toddling steps before Corin scooped up the baby and settled him onto his lap. Tail. Something. 

"It's. A surprise," Din managed roughly. 

"I thought I was a normal kid," Corin said, stroking the child's ear as it nuzzled contentedly against his bare chest. " When I was eight, I started getting pains in my legs. My dad thought it was just growing pains and told me to ignore it. Then Uncle Vecon wanted to help me improve my swimming endurance, and he took me to the ocean. That was the first time I changed into . . . this." 

Din settled back as he listened, taking the pressure off his knees and swaying closer to Corin. 

"He told me that it came from my grandmother. It skipped my dad and my uncle, and they thought I'd been spared it too." Corin's hands curled against wet sand. "Dad . . . did some tests. He couldn't figure out why it happens, but if I go too long without changing? My legs try to shift on their own. That's what was happening before." 

"Why didn't you tell me?" Din asked, equally quiet, his voice a sharp contrast to the subdued rage that he felt at Corin's deceased father and uncle. "Maybe we could have got you here earlier. Spared you the pain." 

Corin flinched, as if Din's words had been a harsh reprimand instead of a lover's worry. "I know. I'm sorry." 

Din pulled a glove off before reaching out to capture Corin's fingers, his thumb rubbing steady caresses on the back of Corin's hand. "It's okay. We can schedule some time into our travel, now that I know. How often do you need to be in salt water?" 

Even in the dimming light, Din could see those familiar blue eyes widen in bafflement. "You - you're not mad at me?" 

Din cocked his helmet back at Corin in equal puzzlement. "Why would I be angry? It was personal and it wasn't affecting you up until now. Even if I'd known that there was something different about you, I'd have waited for you to tell me." 

Corin's flippers smacked awkwardly against the wet sand. "Right. Uh, I can usually last two to three years if I wait until I _have_ to change, but the more often I go swimming, the less time it takes to . . . recharge, I guess." 

"Okay. We'll take you for a swim every few months, then." Din nodded to himself, already plotting out a rough schedule. "How long will it take you to recharge this time?" 

"Eight to nine hours, with how long I left it." Corin made a face. "I guess I'll be sleeping in the sea tonight." 

"Do you need me to bring you some food?" And would Corin need extra for the energy he was burning right now? 

"No, it's okay. It's raw fish for dinner tonight." Corin laughed, a little awkwardly. "The sea nexu change is more than skin deep. I'll be fine." 

Din still hadn't let go of Corin's hand, the very much human skin under his hand a vivid contrast with the slowly-drying tail. "Okay." 

"You can - you can touch it, if you like. My tail." 

Din didn't need heat vision to see the blush rise in Corin's cheeks. "Thanks," Din managed, lifting his other hand to his mouth to bite off his other glove. 

Corin's tail was unexpectedly furry under his touch. The hairs were short and coarse and still soaked in ice-cold seawater, but Din ignored the chill as he explored. The muscle was padded with a thin layer of blubber - probably thinner than it should be, given the temperature, but Corin had been a Snow Trooper for a reason. Under Corin's skin, the bones were surprisingly human. The hips were narrower, both leg bones still present even if not quite the same, their natural length giving Corin a significantly larger tail than the sea nexu he'd referred to. The foot bones - those were made over into flat flippers in a deeper brown. 

Corin's entire tail flinched, nearly hitting Din in the face. "Sorry. I need to get back in the water," Corin said regretfully, his hand tightening on Din's before letting go. "I'll see if I can find something down there for you as well. Might as well eat fresh food while I can hunt it." 

Something primal in Din's Mandalorian instincts hummed approval at having a partner who could hunt alongside him. He'd already known Corin was skilled on land, but Corin's casual confident in his ability to feed the three of them in this new environment struck a chord somewhere deep. 

Corin gently lifted the kid off his lap. "I'll be back soon, green bean. Don't you worry," Corin murmured, leaning in to kiss the child's head before lifting up to rest his forehead against Din's helmet. "I'll have my legs back by morning, ner kar'ta." 

And then he was gone, shuffling gracelessly into the water before plunging back under the waves. 

Din signed and stood. "Come on, kid. Let's get a fire started." 

Twenty minutes later, a fish longer than Din's arm arced up out of the water and landed on the beach.


End file.
